


Fine Lines

by neednot



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, things you said prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 02:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7341448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neednot/pseuds/neednot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things you said when you were scared.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fine Lines

It’s the first time she’s lied to him. 

Well. First time she’s lied and immediately regretted it. 

 _I’m fine, Mulder_ , she’d said, even with tears dripping down her face, even shaking and bloody.  _I’m fine_. 

But when she looks at him she loses it. She’s not fine and he knows it, hasn’t truly been fine since she woke up in the hospital after her abduction. Dana Scully wears “ _Fine”_  on her lips because she has to, because that’s what you do when you’re a woman in the boy’s club. She wears “Fine” like an armor, like a mask, like her favorite shade of lipstick.

And Mulder causes it all to come crashing down. 

“You’re not,” he whispers into her hair as he holds her close to him. His touch on her just minutes after Pfaster tried to kill her should make her want to squirm, want to fight, rip and claw and scream. 

But she has no energy left for fighting. 

He folds her into him and she lets him, crying against his chest. She knows she should let the paramedics look at her, give her a blanket for the shock but all she wants right now is Mulder, just Mulder. She breathes him in and tries to convince herself she  _is_ fine, but the tears just keep coming harder until she’s holding onto him for strength, so she doesn’t fall. 

She doesn’t remember getting in the car. Doesn’t remember Mulder driving back to the motel, helping her out of the car so she doesn’t fall. What she does remember is flinching at the sound of running water from the tub, him turning the faucet off as he realizes. 

Instead, he watches as she climbs on the bed, as she curls up on the comforter with her shoes still on and tries to make herself as small as possible. 

She isn’t fine. 

She’s crying again and she hates that she is and next thing she knows the bed’s creaking as Mulder sits down behind her, as he hands her a cool washcloth that she presses to her forehead. 

She doesn’t want him to see her as weak, incapable. Since her abduction he’s been looking at her like he’ll take on the world if it hurts her and she can’t let him do that, can’t let him get that close. Because if she lets herself shatter there’ll be no one to pick the pieces off of him. 

He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t try to move closer to her and she finds herself missing his warmth. It’s not like they’ve slept together, not like they’ve done anything since a brief kiss in the office before she was taken, totally catching her by surprise. Maybe he’s afraid she’ll shatter if he touches her, maybe she’s afraid she won’t. 

She curls up close to him now because she needs him, she needs to not be fine for one moment. She needs and she wants and she lets herself admit that she does.

And he strokes her hair, and somewhere in that motel room she falls asleep on him, back pressed against his thigh, his fingers still brushing through her hair, and she lets herself exhale.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos, and other prompts always appreciated.  
> need-not.tumblr.com


End file.
